Lachmiller Mold History

[deltaenterprizes]

I just received a very nice Lachmiller mold from a member on this board and tried to find out more history on this mold maker but little turned up on Google.
It appears that they made other reloading equipment in the 1950s and were absorbed by RCBS.
Can anyone add to this?

[old goat]

...Ohas, the scale company, marketed the molds under their name for a short time. Then RCBS begain selling them. Don't remember what the dates were, or the reasons.

...old goat

[Mugs]

I have a Lachmiller lubsizer other than being blue instead of green its the same as RCBS.
Mugs
IHMSA 5940L

[BCall]

Lachmiller molds look just like current RCBS molds, but they had thinner handle slots. The ones I have are very nice molds. I have been looking for one of the 36-162-SWC plain base molds that looks like the 357446. GP100man got one not long ago. They cut 3 cavity molds as well, have seen them come up from time to time.

The Ohaus molds I have look nothing like the Lachmiller ones I have. My understanding is that Ohaus did their own molds. I see no correlation between the two lines. Fryxhall said in his articles about the 357 and 44 SWC designs that Lachmiller was a significant contributor in mold during the 50s and 60s. Ohaus started making molds in 1962, and they were both bought out by RCBS in the late 70s.

Seems like RCBS dropped most of the Lachmiller designs over time, which seems a shame as they had some nice looking molds. I have yet to find a catalog of their stuff though.

[mooman76]

I picked one up at a gunshow in 7mm and was hoping it would cast large but drat the luck, it cast right on the money. Nice mould though.

[462]

Had some Lachmiller .30-'06 dies in their original box. They were were well made and were finished with some sort of black coating. The address and phone number, listed on the box, didn't have a zip code nor an area code. That tells me that RCBS didn't buy Lachmiller till sometime after the early to mid-60s.

[BCall]

Like these? I almost forgot about them. Don't have the original box, they came to me in a big box of stuff I bought. 303 Brit, I like them because they don't size the case neck as much as the Lee or RCBS set I had did. A little bit of rust on the outside when I got them, but they are good dies.

[scrapcan]

Pressman can help on the timeline and history for Lachmiller I think. Hopefully he will see this thread if not send him a pm about it.

I have a few items but not enough to be educated enough to help out.

[462]

BCall,
Exactly.

[jameslovesjammie]

The Ohaus molds I have look nothing like the Lachmiller ones I have. My understanding is that Ohaus did their own molds. I see no correlation between the two lines. Fryxhall said in his articles about the 357 and 44 SWC designs that Lachmiller was a significant contributor in mold during the 50s and 60s. Ohaus started making molds in 1962, and they were both bought out by RCBS in the late 70s.

I have one Ohaus single cavity mould and its exterior dimensions are identical to a single cavity Lyman. The sprue plate is different, it is longer and squared off, where the Lyman is rounded. The date on the box is copyright 1972.

I don't have a single cavity Lachmiller or single cavity RCBS to compare to. I have missed a couple Lachmillers on EvilBay, but they look like dandy moulds.

[94Doug]

The Lachmiller I just got looks a lot like an RCBS too, but it is a 3 cavity. The RCBS Handles work fine on it. The odd thing is that a Lyman 311413 boolit about drops into the cavities, so it is a close copy of that design.

Doug

[rintinglen]

I started out with a Lachmiller 150 grain wadcutter mold that was a dead ringer for the old 358-432 Lyman. I cast a 30 gallon garbage can full of wheel weights into boolits with that mold, I finally bought a Cramer 3 cavity wadcutter--I think it is a number 16, but neither have been used for a while. Lachmiller made dies, a reloading press or two, and I think a case trimmer as well as bullet molds. I have had a couple of them over the years, but I have nothing really good or bad to say of them. I know that by 1972 they were out of business, but I don't know exactly when they dropped off the map. I had heard that they had made molds for Herter's at one time, but I can't confirm that.

[waco]

Lachmiller molds look just like current RCBS molds, but they had thinner handle slots. The ones I have are very nice molds. I have been looking for one of the 36-162-SWC plain base molds that looks like the 357446. GP100man got one not long ago. They cut 3 cavity molds as well, have seen them come up from time to time.

The Ohaus molds I have look nothing like the Lachmiller ones I have. My understanding is that Ohaus did their own molds. I see no correlation between the two lines. Fryxhall said in his articles about the 357 and 44 SWC designs that Lachmiller was a significant contributor in mold during the 50s and 60s. Ohaus started making molds in 1962, and they were both bought out by RCBS in the late 70s.

Seems like RCBS dropped most of the Lachmiller designs over time, which seems a shame as they had some nice looking molds. I have yet to find a catalog of their stuff though.

i have that 2 cav 162 pb mold. i had to grind down a set of rcbs handles to fit.
still working up a load with titegroup. good looking boolit!

[Paullacy]

I have a Lachmiller mould but I can not fit any of my handles in the narrow slots. What do you suggest??

[ARKANSAS PACKRAT]

Paullacy I have a DC .30 cal., same problem. I took the handles off a defunct Lee Dc mold and added two brass shims to each side to take up the slack. Works fine!
To remove the pinned on handles, "gestimate" where the pin location is on the top and drill down to the pin and punch it out.
Titan sells blank Lee dc molds, I just measured a set of those handles, .168, I don't have the Latchmiller on hand to measure the slot.
Good luck, Nick